AMERICAN HORROR STORIES – SEASON TWO (2022) – Slightly better than Season One but still missing the mark with the endings

I love the American Horror Story series. When producers and Ryan Murphy came up with a spin off anthology horror series last year that they called simply American Horror Stories, I was delighted. However this delight soon gave way to disappointment, as the series just couldnot match up to the original series at all levels. Added to that is the format of an anthology series which meant the episodes each week had to have a proper ending to whatever tales of horror presented. That was where the series faltered as the endings were often unsatisfying and felt like a rushed decision.

Happily, Season Two showed some improvements although still not quite a complete transition. There are some hits and misses (mostly misses unfortunately). One episode in particular stood out among the 8 episodes in the season and that honor goes to its penultimate episode titled Necro. To get some inclining on what to expect in this episode, the word ”necro” is a Greek word that refers to ”the dead” or” corpse”. Madison Iseman gives an unforgettable and stellar performance as a young mortician with a tragic past that has somehow contributed to her personality which seems to relate more to the dead than to the living. She meets someone with a similar passion and develops an unusual romance. The episode has a sex scene that may be offensive to some of the more sensitive viewers but for me, I thought it was strangely a rather touching moment and well justified given the content of the story. This episode felt like a mini movie and was totally engaging. If only every episode of AHS was this good. The rest were pretty forgettable although some episodes like Facelift, Dollhouse and Aura were fascinating and starts off promising, only to be letdown by their endings.

Another plus point in Season Two is the absence of any further reference to the Horror House and Rubber Man which had been done to death in the AHS series. Hopefully this is an indication that we have seen the last of these in the series.

Fans of the AHS series would also probably be disappointed in the lack of familiar faces and alumni stars appearing in the season. Perhaps we would welcome back more of them in the parent American Horror Story series. Meanwhile this uneven anthology series will have to do while we wait for the “real thing”.